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Sheriff Bill Gore easily outdistanced his two well-known rivals Tuesday in his bid to be elected San Diego County’s top lawman, securing victory outright nearly a year after he was appointed to the job.

With at least half the votes counted, Gore had a roughly 3-to-1 lead over sheriff’s Lt. Jim Duffy and retired undersheriff Jay La Suer, allowing Gore to avoid a fall runoff. “It speaks volumes to the confidence that voters have in the Sheriff’s Department,” Gore said. He saw the outcome as an endorsement of his stewardship and the department’s crime-fighting efforts — and said the criticisms leveled by his rivals didn’t stick.

“I was disappointed (the campaign) was so negative,” he said. “I tried to run a very positive campaign. I tried to keep politics out of it.”

The sheriff also said he was often uneasy on the campaign trail. “I have a hard time mixing politics with law enforcement.”

Duffy said he was surprised by Gore’s strong and sustained lead throughout the evening.

Duffy noted he had the backing of labor groups in the region and many of the Sheriff’s Department rank-and-file. But he said that was apparently no match for Gore’s unflagging support from the “downtown elite.”

Gore easily topped his rivals in campaign contributions, raising $154,900 this year compared with $30,000 by Duffy and $22,000 by La Suer.

“He had a big advantage with two issues,” Duffy said. “The financial advantage and his appointed incumbency.”

La Suer said he was also surprised by Gore’s commanding lead, but declined to speculate what might be behind it.

Gore’s election can only come as a relief to a man who didn’t always relish the rough-and-tumble of the campaign.

The 62-year-old San Diegan claimed before the election that he was not a politician. He was reticent to make pronouncements about how tough he would be in the job, and preferred to point to his track record with the Sheriff’s Department.

“I’m into effective law enforcement, not into who can make the best political statement,” he said in May.

Duffy and La Suer, citing Gore’s long career with the FBI, portrayed him as a button-down type who knew his way around an office better than the street. They noted he had never been a beat cop or sheriff’s deputy.

The criticism rankled Gore, prompting him to talk — with some reluctance — about his own front-line experiences.

“They talk about driving around in a black-and-white,” he said last month. “I worked the street with the FBI. I got … (into) a shootout and had to kill somebody. I stormed hijacked planes. I did all that stuff.”

He preferred to tout his management skills and noted the department has a staff of 4,000 and a $580 million budget. The department serves the unincorporated parts of the county, along with Lemon Grove, Poway and several other cities.

He plans to impose $13 million in department budget cuts come July 1, largely through job attrition and reductions in command staff and full-time SWAT officers. Those cuts are in addition to the $25 million made last year.